Conflict Study

Scholar to provide inside view of Russia-Georgia conflict

Author and former Georgian independence activist Irakli Kakabadze will discuss “Russia and Georgia at War: Understanding the August 2008 Conflict” at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 14, in Room C114 of SUNY Oswego’s Campus Center.

Currently a visiting scholar in Cornell University’s peace studies program, Kakabadze was a key leader of the student opposition to the Soviet government in the 1980s, becoming the youngest member of the National Forum of Georgia, the prominent national liberation movement, at age 20.

In the years since, he has worked for Voice of America, the Foreign Service Institute and the National Peace Foundation. In 2007, he received a Hellman/Hammett prize from Human Rights Watch for his work against authoritarianism.

His five books include “Allegro or the Chronicle of One Year,” named Tsiskari magazine’s best literary debut by a young author (in 1990, when he was 21), and his most recent “Inside the Revolution of the Roses.”

In 2005 and 2006, Kakabadze was arrested four times and beaten while working for private TV Channel 202 covering the Georgia-Russia conflict.

The free talk is sponsored by SUNY Oswego’s Hart Hall and history department. For more information, call 312-3249 or e-mail .

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(Posted: Oct 01, 2008)